Conceptualised (2010–2013), composed and produced (2014–2017) by Carl Michael von Hausswolff in Palma (Majorca) and Stockholm. This musical piece consists only of sounds emitted and extracted from physical matter using emission spectroscopy as the sole basic technology. Acknowledgements to Linköping University (IFM), Sweden.

'Still Life - Requiem' consists of one piece with the same title and is divided up into two to fit the LP format. The piece is, as the title suggests, a requiem and it’s contents are solely composed by sounds captured from a specific physical solid state material. The composer has used a technique called 'emission spectroscopy' whereby the frequencies generated from the material was analysed and transferred into, for humans, a listenable pitch (between 15 and 14000Hz). This captured organic sound material has been stretched, looped, equalised and composed to produce the recording.

A requiem is a piece of music dedicated to certain sole or several restless souls that wander our worlds looking for a place to call home. A requiem radiates calm, peace and perhaps comfort for tormented spiritual beings - it’s a piece dedicated to promote and insert tranquility and transcendence.

This requiem also provides the listener with a certain feeling of connection - perhaps a connection with the unknown and with the energy field clusters and mental abilities of post-mortem life forms that would be the incorporeal essence of a living being.

CMvH (born 1956 in Linköping , Sweden) has a long history within the communities of contemporary music and visual art. His first records was released in early 80s while the most recent saw the light just a few years ago (‘Squared' [CD - Auf Abwegen, 2015]). In recent years he has been collaborating with Leslie Winer ('1' [LP - Monotype 2016]) and Hans-Joachim Roedelius ('Nordlicht' [LP - Curious Music, 2017]).

He has also instigated and curated the collective sound-installation 'freq_out' during 2003 - 2017, which includes artists such as Jana Winderen, JG Thirlwell, Finnbogi Petursson, Christine Ödlund and others.

Reviews:

Chain D.L.K.:

Solely using data from emission spectroscopy on physical objects, pitch-shifted into human hearing range, “Stll Life - Requiem” is one single thirty-one minute piece that’s been divided into two purely because of the limitations of the vinyl target format.

The result is a slowly undulating and very gently glitchy analogue hum and drone that feels like it owes as much to the variations in the electric innards of the recording equipment or the power supply than to the objects being analysed, though I’m sure scientifically this may be unfair. The most intriguing thing about this is how there are some higher-pitched elements that seem to have very short patterns that border on melody.

There’s a lot of ebb and flow here- louder, more harsh-edged parts at times, barely audible near-flat waveforms at others (including near the beginning of the first part, where you begin to wonder whether you’ve accidentally paused the playback as you haven’t heard anything for a while).

Putting aside the science, it’s a very well-formed and interestingly textured undulating drone piece that’s really rather relaxing. The purity of the concept is to its credit and it’s a very enjoyable listen that becomes quite mesmeric when it has your attention.

Swedish composer and sound artist Carl Michael Von Hausswolff since the late 70’s has been working on his sonic compositions using the tape recorder as one of his main instruments. As a conceptual visual artist he has been involved in performances art, light and sound through sound installations and photography.
This musician who works in Stockholm is well-known in the experimental scene and since 1980 he holds a threesome of solo releases and in collaboration with artists such as Hans-Joachim Roedelius, John Duncan, Leslie Winer, among others.
'Still Life - Requiem' consists of a piece with the same title and is divided in two to fit the LP format.
This piece of music consists solely of sounds emitted and extracted from physical matter using emission spectroscopy as the only basic technology.
The composer has used a technique called 'emission spectroscopy' so the frequencies generated from the material, were analyzed and transferred for human listening.
This material was processed and composed to deliver two pieces of imperceptible and certainly enigmatic and dark sounds. With several layers of noise and intermittent signals and a drone that it holds in the background. [Guillermo Escudero]

It took me a good while before deciding to write about Carl Michael Von Hausswolff’s most recent investigation of the “beyond beyond”. Instances occur where the unembellished elucidation of a procedure denotes such a level of prescient acuity that a supplement of narrative risks to destroy both the integrity and the logical undermeaning of the outcome.

After the effective starkness of the composer’s lines (“a connection with the unknown and with the energy field clusters and mental abilities of post-mortem life forms that would be the incorporeal essence of a living being”) it is impossible not to recall the “heavenly epic” theories of numerous incoherent “scientists”, and silently chuckle.

The inability of recognizing the reshaping of matter as the exclusive symbol of continuity inside an infinitude which remains unnerving for less than pragmatic specimens lies at the basis of today’s global cerebral wreck. Every body – including the apparently inanimate – is defined by a degree of intrinsic vibration. The combination of those frequencies is essential for providing elements of actual development; in this sense, adjectives like “inharmonious” or “strident” should not even exist.

Only the limitations of the individual brain/ear apparatuses keep sticking quality labels and rules of acceptance on a collective counterpoint of unique existences. On that account, no one can afford to trumpet a correspondence with theoretical “superior entities” designing a nonsensical flawlessness. There are none, until proven differently; and the “proofs” coming from sheer trust (or, more incisively, human delirium) are not acceptable.

An elementary truth inevitably hurts a dysfunctional mind. Isn’t it much better to rely on celestial bullshit? How to proceed otherwise in the daily struggle against the acknowledgement of one’s fundamental uselessness in the nominal “great scheme of things”?

In terms of mere “musical” content, Still Life / Requiem stands up there with the finest work by the Swedish scanner. In just over half an hour we’re treated with chorales of reverberant quintessences and barely measurable signals from the innards of the audio spectrum, in accordance with Von Hausswolff’s interest in the abnormal ranges of audibility. The album begins and ends with the same sound; a genuine loop symbolizing the stochastic cyclicity of transformation within the continuum of a merciless rationality.

All of the above is probably too hard to fathom for people in search of answers they’re never going to get. Von Hausswolff’s connoisseurs – plus listeners interested in John Duncan, Asmus Tietchens and the likes – need no further prattle but two words: compulsory listening. [Massimo Ricci]

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